Mask
by kuristina
Summary: It's a regular day for Sasuke. But he comes home to see his lover in a position he never expected to see and that opens his eyes to something that was very well hidden from him. Oneshot.


**DISCLAIMER:** Kishimoto made Naruto, therefore he owns it

**WARNINGS:** angst

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(Sasuke's POV)

I scrolled through the files on my computer one last time, making sure that I didn't miss anything. When I deemed that I had done all the work that had to be done for the day, I shut off the lamp sitting at my desk and grabbed my jacket to take home with me.

I couldn't wait to get home.

I couldn't wait to get home, undress, turn on the television for background noise, and just be with my love.

So in truth, I couldn't wait to just go home and see him. See him smile, laugh, and feel how warm he is against me. He's perfect to home to and perfect to be with all the time, even if I don't always show it in front of him. But he should know that; I've always been grateful to have such a wonderful lover.

Uzumaki Naruto.

"Have a good evening Uchiha-san." My secretary said as I walked past her.

"Thank you Haruno."

The drive home, all I could think about was Naruto. Blonde hair that I could run my fingers through, blue eyes I could practically drown in, a body I could completely envelope in my arms, and a sun shine personality. There's so much more I could go on about.

He's perfect.

I'd do anything to make him smile and laugh. Make him happy. I cherished each and every time we had together, even if our fights because in the end, that made us stronger anyway.

We always cherished each and every time we joined together. I loved how he clawed at my back and he loved how I always gripped his hips in my hands to hold him still while I pushed deep into him to pull out and repeat the process. And afterwards, just having Naruto so close to me and sleeping peacefully beside me always managed to make my heart swell.

When I pulled up to the house there weren't any lights illuminating any of the windows. That was strange. Naruto always left at least one light on to let me know that he was home. But he didn't message me or anything to let me know that he would be out.

I parked the car and went to the front door. There was an envelope hanging on it with my name labeled on it. It was written in Naruto's handwriting. I wonder why he had left it for me but I wasn't going to read it right away.

First I had to find Naruto.

I opened the door and set my briefcase down and pulled down at my tie. As I removed my shoes I called out into the house, "Naruto? Are you home?"

He could have been sleeping but the first thing I had to do was check our bedroom.

The master bedroom was empty though. Naruto wasn't beneath the convers. I checked the other rooms in our house; he wasn't in the guest room, the office, or his studio room. I had to check the rest of the house. And the entire time I was calling his name. The more silence I got as an answer, the angrier and panicked my voice became.

Where the hell was he?

Just like the other rooms in the house, the living room was empty. And the dining room as well. Now I was starting to worry. I considered calling the police but I had one last place to check.

I turned on the lights in the kitchen and looked around.

My heart practically stopped when I saw him.

Naruto… lying on the ground completely still. And his chest wasn't even rising to give me the comfort that he was just being his usual stupid self and fell asleep on the floor or something idiotic like that. I would have kissed him awake, start touching him, and tease him about how silly he was to fall asleep in such an unusual place. Then Naruto would tease me back and he would be laughing.

Or I also expected him to just jump right up and scream boo at me in an attempt to scare me, which wouldn't have worked. I also would have teased him and he'd pout at me.

But neither or those things were happening.

He just _laid_ there…

Tentatively I took a step forward and softly called, "Naruto?" I kneeled down next to him but didn't touch him just yet. I said his name again with no answer in response. The closer I looked at him; I noticed how pale he was.

My eyes looked around and I caught sight of a pill bottle nearby.

The realization sank in.

Naruto did this to himself.

I picked up his body and began to shake him. "Naruto! Wake up!" I screamed. I shook him a little harder and screamed a little harder. "Damn it Naruto! _Wake_ up!" His blonde head shook with how I tried to wake him but when I stilled it just fell back. I picked up one of his arms and dropped it on the floor and just landed with a thump.

Everything around the house was still.

My heart began to race, my body heat rose, and I began to hyper ventilate. What was I supposed to do with him? How could I save him?

My mind raced with all sorts of questions as my body moved all on its own. I carried Naruto and hurried up the stairs, all the while telling him not to die even though I knew he couldn't hear me from beyond wherever he was. But I was going to bring him back somehow.

In the rush to get upstairs, I tripped and hit my knee against one of the hard steps of the stairs. But I ignored the pain and went straight to our bedroom. "Don't die on me Naruto! Don't you dare fucking die on me!" I screamed.

I set him on the floor inside our room. I slapped at his face a little, begging for him to come back or to stop joking and to just _wake_ the fuck up.

I expected him to just wake up with all my screaming but he wasn't disturbed at all. I gripped at my hair and continued to ask myself what to do.

"What do I do? What do I do? God, what the _fuck do I do_?!"

Naruto wasn't waking up, wasn't breathing and I was in a frenzied state of mind. I searched around but nothing could help me.

Then my eyes set on the open door of our bathroom.

I knew what to do.

I rushed forward and turned on the light to see where I was going. I went straight to the bath and turned on the showerhead to get the water flowing down the drain. I barely cared how cold the water was but I wasn't going to waste time adjusting the fucking thing.

Naruto was the priority.

I ran back to Naruto and dragged him by both feet with my hands to get him into the bathroom.

"I'm going to save you Naruto. Just hang in there baby." I said, trying to calm him as if he were conscious.

My hands shook as I reached for him and put us in the bathtub. My clothes got soaked through and my bones were chilled by the water. I leaned Naruto forward and tried to pry my fingers into his mouth. My fingers searched the back of his throat.

"Come on, come on…" I muttered.

Finally, I felt Naruto jerk against me. He leaned forward and for a moment, my leg felt warm from the fluids he was coughing up. I took a peek to see that the he had taken ambien, which I didn't even know we had. Neither of us was insomniac but we did have a mutual friend that…

Naruto sobbed in front of me, coughing and looking around in a panic.

I held him against me and kissed at his temple. "Why… Why did you do it?" I asked.

Naruto only cried in response and he tried to push me away.

But I only held him tighter and kissed more at his face. I kissed his whisker marks and just buried my face into his neck. I didn't know whether he heard me or not but all I did was just apologize. For whatever made Naruto do what he did. Whether it was because of me, someone else, or even some other reason like himself; I just apologized.

Naruto pried an arm out from my grasp and reached forward to finally stop the shower. The water stopped pouring on us and the both of us were shaking. He looked back at me and I felt myself break at seeing watery blue eyes. I apologized again for whatever caused him to commit suicide.

"I-I'll help… I'll make you better again." I promised to him.

He didn't say anything to me. He only reached out a shaky hand and wiped at my face. I couldn't feel my face but my guess was that I had been crying. I'm probably still crying but I didn't care.

I had a resolve to help Naruto. I had a new resolve to bring back my Naruto and build him up again.

I wondered how long he had been wearing that mask… that beautiful smiling mask that had given me a false indication that everything was perfect. That beautiful mask that told me pretty little lies about how great his day was at work or how whenever he had a "slightly" bad day that it was only one day out of 364 others. He had me fooled. I never would have guessed that he was wearing a mask and that a regular day out of any other day, it would crack and fall apart.

Everything must have been worse than what he actually told me.

But I swore that it wouldn't happen a second time.

I had no idea how it started and I went on thinking that he was perfectly fine. I was ignorant but that wouldn't happen again. I don't want Naruto to build a new façade to play off that our life was going great for me when really he was suffering inside.

I would try harder to watch out for anything that told me that he was lying. I would break that mask he put on so that he couldn't attempt anything like this again. I would try to fix whatever caused him to do such a thing. If it was me, I'd change. If it was something at work, I'd make sure to get them back. If it was something else like a person, I swear that I would kick some ass.

I would work so hard for Naruto that he would never feel the need to put his mask on again.

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**A/N:** Good? Bad? Review me.


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